About

An English professor at Washington College, Corey Olsen holds a Ph.D. in medieval literature and has been a student of J.R.R. Tolkien’s works all his life. As a professor, Olsen became increasingly frustrated with the separation between academics and general readers — namely, the inability for general readers and lovers of literature to enjoy the thought-provoking discoveries made in the cloistered world of academics.

In July of 2009, The Tolkien Professor launched this site in order to share his scholarly work with the public, to connect with other people who are eager to be included in thoughtful, literary conversation about the works of J.R.R. Tolkien. Since the launch of the site, listeners have downloaded more than 1,200,000 of his lectures and podcasts.

Throughout this website, there are links to lectures that Professor Olsen has taught at Washington College, a podcast series focused on in-depth analysis of The Hobbit, as well as several links to question and answer sessions held by the Tolkien Professor and various prominent scholars in the field of Tolkien studies.

All recorded material is completely free, and please tune in for the opportunity to enter into a more interactive conversation by keeping posted to the Events section of the site as well as on iTunes! Hopefully, you will enjoy the Tolkien Professor’s work and have as much fun listening to the courses and podcasts as he had in making them.

If you are interested in learning even more about Tolkien and expanding your studies into the world of Faerie, Fantasy, and Medieval Literature, look into The Tolkien Professor’s partner-in-learning: Mythgard Institute, where you can take classes for credit or audit courses that you love!

If you are interested in joining the Tolkien Professor on a rich and exciting exploration of Tolkien’s stories, then…